In pharmaceutical and biotechnological fields, it is generally performed to systematically evaluate various kinds of processes which are applied to liquid samples, including a biochemical substance, for the purpose of obtaining various kinds of information from the liquid samples.
When evaluating various kinds of processes, plural types of liquid mixtures are used which are prepared by selecting several required ones from among biological samples, solvents, reagents, and other liquid materials, and then mixing the selected materials at a desired proportion.
More specifically, the liquid mixture is prepared by repeating operations of selectively taking out desired amounts of the liquid materials from wells formed in a microplate, called a mother plate, in which various types of liquid materials are stored, and then dispensing the taken-out liquid materials to wells formed in a microplate called a daughter plate.
Because different liquid materials are poured into the wells of the daughter plate from the mother plate, different types of liquid materials are formed in the wells of the daughter plate.
In general, the mother plate is often replaced with a plurality of test tubes.
As a device for performing the above-described dispensing operation, there is, for example, a device developed by the applicant, which is disclosed in Patent Document 1.
Patent Document 1 discloses a substantial liquid material dispensing device for sucking a substantial liquid material from a test tube into a pipette tip attached to a pipette end, and discharging the substantial liquid material into a desired hole formed in a microplate, wherein the dispensing device comprises a head unit having a pipette, a tip case for holding the pipette tip attached to the pipette end, a test tube rack for holding the test tube which stores the substantial liquid material or a liquid material containing the substantial liquid material, and a table unit on an upper surface of which the microplate is placed, the head unit and the table unit being relatively moved to perform dispensing work. According to the embodiment disclosed in Patent Document 1, the basic operation of the substantial liquid material dispensing device is as follows.
(1) The pipette tip is attached to the pipette end by descending the pipette from above the pipette tip held in the tip case.
(2) The pipette is moved into the test tube in which a sample is stored, thereby sucking a desired amount of the sample into the pipette tip.
(3) The pipette is moved toward the desired hole of the microplate, and the sample in the pipette tip is discharged into the desired hole.
(4) The pipette is moved toward a tip release plate in a tip discard box, and the pipette tip is released from the pipette to be dropped into the pipette tip discard box.
The above steps (1) to (4) are repeated until the desired amount of the sample is poured into all the wells of the microplate.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-061957